Question about PC Tools Firewall

I don't want to make this a vs. thread but I have a question for everyone.

I have Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. I was using Outpost Firewall Pro and changed to PC Tools firewall plus. It seems that PC tools is better for my system, in that Outpost seemed to slow down my system.

Now, I'm very much a novice on the intricacies of a firewall. So, my question comes down to this, what am I losing by using PC Tools FW that I would have had with Outpost Firewall? When installing PC Tools, I used the novice setting at the beginning.

Again, not asking which is better, but if I am losing anything from using PC tools instead of Outpost.

I do have a router installed and have all the security software that is listed in my sig.

Thanks for the responses and hope this question doesn't violate the forum rules.

 

yup you would be losing the HIPs component, realtime protection on spyware, and there might be other but those are the two main one that i can think of.

 

pc tools have a very good HIPS.i don't enable this feature because i feel i'm a power user.
for the spyware protection i can't trust products like outpost or zonealarm.

 

it has a hips? where is it on by default?

 

I have Avast and Malwarebytes on all the time, so spyware would be covered by that, wouldn't it? I also run scans every couple of days with SAS and HitmanPro.

My main worry is that my security would be vastly less with PC Tools. For whatever reason, it just seems Outpost really slows down my system. As long as I'm not badly exposed by the switch, I'm OK with it.

Like I said, I'm really a novice at some of the finer things a firewall does and just want to make sure I'm not losing something I really need.

 

i just started using out post firewall free 64bit. i think it has better protection than pc tools because of the HIPS(host protection) part of it. i think pc tools firewall has the threatfire compononet which is a behavior blocker which is still good (if you go higher than level 3 sensitivity)

btw if you dont mind me asking, did you have to manually disable windows firewall after installing OP firewall? and outpost to register in windows security center. it says i have no firewall

 

PC Tools Firewall Plus does not include ThreatFire; it has its own built-in HIPS called Enhanced Security Verification, see here: -

http://www.softpedia.com/screenshots/PC-Tools-Firewall-Plus_10.png

It is the ESV component that enables PC Tools Firewall Plus to do well in the Matousec leak tests (if that matters to you).

 

PC Tools Firewall is fine. It has no spyware protection but you may not need this if your AV offers this. It has no web protection but you can soup up firefox for this. The hips seems to be close to pure Hips. I'm not really sure if Outposts is better. Outpost has a lot more info better logs. You can also import block lists. So yes I think Outpost is better. PC Tools firewall is free. At one time it was based on Look n Stop it probably still is to some degree. If you want a really light Firewall try Look n Stop. But LNS has no HIPS.

 

When I had Outpost, I didn't have to manually disable Windows 7 FW. I don't remember having any problem with getting the security center to recognize Outpost.

However, when I installed PC Tools, I did have a problem with Security Center saying I had no FW. What I think was the problem(at least this cleared it up) was I DID disable the Windows 7 FW before I installed PC tools and I wasn't getting PC Tools to show up in the security center. I uninstalled it, turned back ON the Windows 7 FW and then re-installed PC tools and the security center picked it up. I guess it had to turn off W7 firewall itself in the process of installing PC Tools.

Don't know if Outpost would have the same problem. The times I have installed Outpost, I have had the Windows 7 FW enabled and while installing Outpost, it disables it a puts Outpost in its place.